


Without the Rhetoric

by Etnoe



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Community: 31_days, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-20
Updated: 2011-04-20
Packaged: 2017-10-18 10:42:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/188113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Etnoe/pseuds/Etnoe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sora leaves Betwixt and Between, and Roxas dives straight into a battle with him. Set in-canon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Without the Rhetoric

**Author's Note:**

> This might be contradicted by FM+, but I wouldn't know. The title is from a [31 days](http://31_days.livejournal.com/profile) prompt that inspired this story, "blood and love without the rhetoric", which in turn is part of a line in _Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead_.

Axel's dead.

It's going to be quiet, Roxas thought. No more awful puns, no rambling stories, no complicated mission plans thought up out loud. Then he didn't think much anymore - he knew how to do what he needed.

Sora had jumped into the corridor Axel had opened, and the darkness it was made of was a shivering, eager thing. Even though Roxas's strength was in light, he was a Nobody, made up of flecks of darkness the same as all of them. And if he wanted - if he wanted...

He really did want something, and it was almost strange. The darkness was way too willing to give it to him, which was probably not a good sign, but Roxas ignored that. He bent himself forwards and strained to force his way through _everything_ , and then he hit ground, and the familiar echo of the World That Never Was travelled up through the sole of his boots.

Sora stood in front of him.

Roxas wasn't exactly angry and he wasn't hurt and maybe he wasn't even sad - but he did feel like everything ever was messed up and wrong, and he _knew_ it was unfair. There was only one thing that could change, and even if it wasn't the thing that needed be change, he couldn't lie down and let everything pass by. He could do this.

Sora fought wildly, moving a little slow and saving himself only by the jerk of reflexes. Was that how Sora normally fought? Was he just confused right now? Even confused and without Donald and Goofy to help, he kept his own.

At the edge of his awareness Roxas could tell that the samurai were performing their duty efficiently, keeping Sora's friends out of the way. He'd sensed the samurai coming towards him as soon as he'd moved to take himself out of Sora. Roxas thought they might almost have been missing him: sharply aware of his absence, in a way that grew and grew.

He realised, listening to his heart thundering in his ears, that he could barely remember Sora's aches now (Riku, Kairi). It was strange to realise that and know that he could still feel. A few minutes ago he'd been swamped in the need to see them again.

How would it be, Roxas asked himself, if he won this battle and stayed in control, and if he always had those names hovering in his heart, without substance and still impossible to forget?

He pressed on, harder, breathing fast. He hadn't really fought in a long time. Struggling couldn't compare to this. His arms ached from swinging and blocking strikes, and his feet moved before his brain let him know he needed it. A real fight, a fight because he was real - and it was infuriating and exhilarating the way Sora matched him.

Sora won.

Sora won because he was chosen _and_ had accepted it, because the Keyblade belonged with him, because he wasn't one to give up. Even if Roxas had grabbed the other Keyblade and fought on, Sora would have won anyway.

Roxas let his hands flex for his lost weapons, and he let them stay empty. He didn't want to delay the inevitable right that minute, with Kairi in danger. Sora had his own world to put in order.

Roxas supposed that world was half his.

And as Roxas walked away, he had to admit that while Sora was a complete dork, he would have totally got along with Hayner and the guys if they hung out, and he would have been hard to beat at Struggling.

Roxas stepped back out of darkness, and it felt like one right thing in a hundred worlds of stupid.

Too bad. Even with Sora as friendly and loud as he was, and even when he got all his Destiny Island buddies back ... it was always going to be too quiet.


End file.
